Where Do Squirrels Go When It Snows? Into the Drey, Together

Grey and red squirrels do not hibernate. They wait out snow in a leaf drey or tree cavity, often huddled with others, and come out to dig for caches.

By Zakaria October 12, 2026 3 min read Save to Pinterest

A grey squirrel on a snow-covered branch in winter — Photo: meganzopf, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay

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Into a drey or a tree cavity — often with company. Tree squirrels do not hibernate. They sit out the worst of it in the nest, huddling with others for warmth in hard cold, and come out to dig for caches when it eases.

The short answer

Tree squirrels do not hibernate. They wait out snow in a drey — a ball of twigs lined with leaves, moss and shredded bark wedged high in a tree fork — or in a better-insulated tree cavity where one is available. In hard cold several squirrels will share a nest for warmth despite normally ignoring each other. They emerge when weather eases, concentrating activity around midday, and locate cached food mainly by smell through snow and soil. Ground squirrels, which do hibernate, are the source of the confusion.

They do not hibernate — tree squirrels stay active all winter
Drey or tree cavity; cavities are warmer and preferred
They huddle together in hard cold, despite being solitary otherwise
Activity shifts to midday — the opposite of their summer pattern
They find caches by smell, not only memory
Ground squirrels do hibernate — that is where the confusion comes from

The nest

A drey is a ball of twigs lined with leaves, moss, grass and shredded bark, wedged into a fork high in a tree. It looks untidy and is surprisingly weatherproof.

A cavity in a dead limb is better again — more insulation, less wind — and squirrels take one over a drey wherever they can find it. That is also why a loft is so attractive to them.

Who hibernates and who does not

Tree squirrels (grey, red, fox) — no. Active all winter. Ground squirrels, marmots, woodchucks — yes, true hibernation. Chipmunks — in between: repeated bouts of torpor in a burrow, waking to eat from a cache.

How they get through it

This table answers the question on its own

	Summer	Winter
Active hours	Early morning and late afternoon	Around midday — the warmest part
Time in nest	Little	Most of the day in bad weather
Food	Buds, fungi, fruit, insects, eggs	Cached nuts and seeds
Sharing a nest	No	Yes, in hard cold
Body fat reserve	—	They do not build one

That last row matters. A squirrel cannot sleep through a long cold spell the way a hibernator can — it has no fat store to burn. It has to get out and recover food.

Finding food under snow

Mainly smell, backed by a good spatial memory of the general caching area. A squirrel detects a nut through a surprising depth of snow and soil, then digs a direct hole rather than searching about.

The 'squirrels forget their nuts' claim misses the point

Plenty of caches are recovered by a different squirrel than the one that buried them. The nuts are found — just not always by the owner. The ones genuinely missed are how oak and hickory woodland regenerates.

Keeping them out of your roof

Cold weather is exactly when they go looking, and a warm dry loft beats a drey by a wide margin. They chew soffits, lift loose tiles and use overhanging branches as a bridge.

Cut branches back to a couple of metres from the roof and seal gaps before autumn. That is far easier than evicting an animal that has already moved in and had young — at which point you are legally and practically stuck until the young are independent.

Do they need help?

No. They are well adapted to snow and have cached precisely for it, and feeding concentrates animals and spreads parasites. If you want to help wildlife through hard weather, leave seed heads and windfall fruit uncleared and keep a water source unfrozen — that does more good across more species.

Common questions

Where do squirrels go when it snows?

Into a drey or a tree cavity, and often not alone. Tree squirrels do not hibernate, so they sit out the worst weather in a nest and emerge once it eases. A drey is a ball of twigs lined with leaves, moss, grass and shredded bark, wedged in a fork high in a tree, and a cavity in a dead limb is better insulated still and is preferred where one is available. In hard cold several squirrels that would normally ignore each other will share a nest for the warmth.

Do squirrels hibernate?

Tree squirrels do not. Greys, reds and fox squirrels stay active all winter, reducing activity in the worst weather but emerging to feed whenever conditions allow. Ground squirrels are a different matter and genuinely hibernate, as do marmots and woodchucks, which is where the confusion comes from. Chipmunks sit in between, entering repeated bouts of torpor in a burrow and waking to eat from a cache.

How do squirrels find buried nuts under snow?

Mainly by smell, supported by a good spatial memory of the general area where they cached. A squirrel can detect a nut through a surprising depth of snow and soil, and will dig a direct hole rather than searching randomly. They also recover plenty of caches made by other squirrels, which is why the much-repeated claim that they forget most of their nuts misses the point — the nuts are found, just not always by the animal that buried them.

What does a squirrel do all day in winter?

Far less than in summer. Activity concentrates into a few hours around the middle of the day when it is warmest, which is the opposite of their summer pattern, and the rest is spent in the nest conserving energy. They do not store fat the way a hibernator does, so they depend on recovering cached food regularly and cannot simply sleep through a long cold spell.

Will squirrels nest in my loft in winter?

They will if they can get in, and cold weather is exactly when they look. A warm dry roof space beats a drey by a wide margin from a squirrel's point of view, and they chew through soffits, lift loose tiles and use overhanging branches as a bridge. Cutting branches back to a couple of metres from the roof and sealing gaps before autumn is far easier than evicting an animal that has already moved in and had young.

Should I help squirrels in snow?

They do not need it. Tree squirrels are well adapted to snow and have cached food precisely for this, and feeding tends to concentrate animals and spread parasites. If you want to help wildlife generally through hard weather, leaving seed heads and windfall fruit uncleared and keeping a water source unfrozen does more good across more species than putting out nuts for squirrels specifically.

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Two grey squirrels at the mouth of a cavity in a tree trunk, one looking out

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